A dominant player in many categories of enterprise software, Microsoft is the scrappy little guy in a CRM market filled with big-name vendors. But the company is looking to scare its more established competitors by offering IT a set of enhanced applications.

Microsoft is opening its management suite, already hugely popular in Microsoft shops, to handle third-party applications. The company hopes its huge customer base and the newfound flexibility of System Center will put the hurt on a raft of smaller competitors in the application-management market.

Redmond Roundup

Apple, Google and Microsoft are battling for market share in the smartphone OS space. While Apple and Google have more popular but similar offerings, Microsoft Windows Phone 7 represents a new vision in the market.